MUSKEGON, MI – Leading proponents of the Sappi zone change on last November’s ballot are asking a Muskegon County judge to allow them to intervene in a lawsuit by property owner Melching Inc.

The owner of the former paper mill property on Muskegon Lake has sued the city of Muskegon to have Proposal 4 on the Nov. 6 city ballot declared invalid. The proposal, which voters approved, called for rezoning the 120-acre site from industrial to waterfront marine.

The waterfront marine zoning classification permits much less intense uses of the property than heavy industry like the paper mill.

Larry Page and Eve Douglas are asking to become defendants in the lawsuit along with the city, according to a motion filed Tuesday. Page lives a mile away from the Sappi site in the Bluffton Neighborhood and Douglas lives directly across Lakeshore Drive from the paper mill property that is in the Lakeside Neighborhood.

Muskegon County Circuit Court Judge Timothy Hicks has scheduled a Feb. 11 hearing at 9:30 a.m. to handle the Page-Douglas motion to intervene in the case and to hear separate summary disposition motions from the city and Melching.

City Attorney John Schrier and city commissioners encouraged Proposal 4 proponents to join the legal battle. After a long process, Page said he thought it was critical for voters to enter the defense of the Nov. 6 election result.

“I thought it was important to put my money where my mouth is,” Page said. “What I hope is that the judge will uphold the results of the election and find that the vote has changed the zoning.”

Melching Inc. attorney Rodney Schermer of Grand Haven argues in the suit filed Nov. 28 that the city voters do not have the power under Michigan law to change the a property’s zoning through a ballot proposal.

Page said he has raised money privately to support his and Douglas' intervention in the defense of the Melching lawsuit. After searching for a law firm with expertise in municipal and environmental law, he and Douglas have hired Olson, Bzdock & Howard PC of Traverse City, Page said.

Page and Douglas have “substantial interest” in the zoning of the former paper mill property because of what an industrial redevelopment of the property could do to their investments in their properties, their attorney argues. Likewise, as voters they want to uphold the ballot initiative rights of citizens, he stated.

“(Page and Douglas) have a substantial interest because they include proponents and the primary drivers of the initiative petition such that they are uniquely affected by an attack on the rights of electors of home rule cities to act as a fourth-branch of government when the legislature has failed to act to protect their interests,” Traverse City attorney Scott Howard wrote in a motion to intervene in the case.

Page and Douglas’ argument is based on the fact that the city declined to rezone the former Sappi property when Page presented the city commission with petitions and instead commissioners put the issue on the November ballot, according to city charter. The city has not taken up the zoning issue since the November vote and Melching’s lawsuit attempts to remove any legal doubt caused by the vote.

Douglas and Page should be allowed to defend the Melching suit because their “substantial interests are not adequately represented by other parties,” the intervention motion reads.

Howard’s pleadings to the court indicate that the city of Muskegon concurs with the citizen’s intervention but Melching’s attorney does not.

Larry Page

“We have made this response to the city’s unresponsiveness to the petitioners and voters all along,” Page said. “What we certainly hope happens is this will help spur the city to take up the rezoning process.”

The current “I-2” industrial zoning would allow heavy manufacturing uses such as another paper mill, foundries, scrap metal processing and chemical plants.

Page, Douglas and other citizens want the property redeveloped with non-industrial uses, such as restaurants, hotels or marinas allowed under the waterfront marine zoning. Page has argued that the city’s master plan called for a non-industrial use of the Sappi property if the paper mill ended operations.

Sappi closed the paper mill in 2009 after 109 years and the property was purchased by Melching Inc., a Nunica-based demolition company. Melching’s deed is only allows industrial redevelopment of the site with nearly a mile of Muskegon Lake waterfront unless approved by the South African-based global paper company.